Butterfly
by Namey
Summary: Fairy Tail is attacked by a strange thieves' guild. The strangest one of them is not a thief at all but an earth wizard who is obsessed with fighting Natsu Dragneel. But don't be fooled. This story is really about Laxus and Freed...
1. Chapter 1

**Butterfly Part One**

"What the hell happened?" Gajeel jumped up and rushed forward.

Laxus was already alert; he could smell something strange in the air.

Jet was stood in the middle of the guildhall gasping for breath with an unconscious Levy in his arms. "There's a creature, a monster…" There was blood running down his face from a gash on his temple and his eyes were wild.

"Levy!" Gajeel pulled at her. "What's wrong with her?"

"She was knocked out and I…" Jet took in a breath so he could talk. "I think she's OK, but…"

"Take your time," Makarov said.

Levy's eyes flickered and she moaned softly.

"There isn't any time," Jet said. "Master, there's a monster in Magnolia. I've never seen anything like it and it's smashing the whole town. We need to go out and stop it!"

"Oh, my head!" said Levy.

"Are you all right?" Gajeel growled.

"I feel sick," Levy said, struggling her way out of Jet's arms and finding a chair. "But the creature… Gajeel, it's enormous! And it wasn't affected by my solid script. You need to hurry!"

"All right," said Makarov. "Jet, can you show us the way?"

Jet nodded.

"But what about Levy?" asked Gajeel.

"I'll stay with her," said Lisanna. "Don't worry."

"Laxus and his team will stay here too," Makarov decreed.

Laxus started forward in protest.

"We don't know anything about this creature," Makarov said to him quietly. "It would be foolish for all of us to rush to one location. You stay here and look after the guild. We have Warren. We'll keep you updated."

xxx

Laxus kept an internal count of time passing. Seventeen minutes since the best of the guild had departed for the centre of the city, or wherever it was they had gone. Laxus was angry even though he knew it was irrational. What the old man had said made good enough sense, but he couldn't shake the feeling. He wanted to be in the thick of the action, not stuck at home minding the shop. What's wrong with me? he wondered. He stood outside the guildhall, looking out into the night in the direction everyone had hared off in, still smelling that strange smell from before.

And suddenly something behind and above him exploded. He whirled round and there was another explosion, and another. A burning missile flashed by him, missing him by inches.

"We're under attack!" he bawled as he flung himself back into the guildhall. It was obvious by then. The explosions came faster, and from all sides. "Freed. Shield!"

His team were already in motion. Bickslow and Evergeen went up and out to aim missiles at their attackers. Freed disappeared back into the centre of the building to begin constructing a shield from rune magic. That would take time though, and meanwhile the guildhall was getting the battering of its life.

Laxus decided to go on the offensive. He burst out of the front doors again, charging up lightning energy at the same time. The attackers might be able to damage the guildhall, but they could hardly expect to be able to hurt a dragon slayer so easily, whoever they were.

They smelled strange, but ordinary at the same time. He could count their number from the scents if he tried, round about twelve of them. He sought out one to aim for and was suddenly hit with a massive attack of magic that boomed and deafened him, laying him out senseless for a moment before he struggled up and was immediately hit again. He wondered if his ears were bleeding. The smells had moved. In the time it took Laxus to locate them the magic attack came again, this time slicing making him have to jump back and even so, it still hit him.

"We'll pound your guildhall to the ground." A voice came out of the night. "It doesn't matter whether you are inside or out; we'll pound you too. And then we'll take what's kept beneath."

Laxus lurched back through the doors and let them slam behind him as the next wave came; a barrage. He rolled ungracefully into the room in time to see Ever stagger down the stairs with her wings in tatters. The attacks did not stop. The whole building shook with them.

"Ever! Are you all right?" Laxus called.

Bickslow was there too, lying face-down on the floor.

"I'm fine!" said Ever, and she laughed. "Or at least, I'm better than you."

Laxus' chest was slashed and bleeding but he honestly couldn't feel it. He shook Bickslow's shoulder. "Hey!" he said.

Bickslow mumbled and he rolled over, revealing a wide grin. "Man," he said. "Who _are_ those guys? They've certainly got some beef!"

And the sounds around them suddenly stopped, just like that.

"That's Freed," said Ever. "Shield's up."

"What's going on?"

All three of them looked round to see Lisanna coming into the hall from the direction of the infirmary.

Ever went to meet her and took her hands. "Someone's attacking the guildhall. We don't know who. Do we?" She turned to Laxus.

"No." Laxus thought about what he did know. "There are about twelve of them. Just before Levy and Jet came in I smelled something strange. These twelve, they smell the same."

"That's interesting," said Ever.

"But they've stopped," Lisanna said.

"They haven't," Bickslow said. "Old Freed's put up a shield so they can't land an attack on us for the time being, that's all. Stalemate."

"No it's not!" Laxus said. He got up and went to the guildhall doors, threw them open and walked out into the night.

xxx

The best place to generate a shield over the Fairy Tail guildhall was actually in the basement. There was enough room there too for a magic circle. But there was no way to rush it. Freed wrote the runes carefully and then flung power into them and felt the shield stretch out around him. It was an intoxicating feeling, he had to concentrate to control that part of it as much as any other, and he was stuck there, holding it, feeling every attack that hit it. He had no idea what was going on in the rest of the building, or what the others were doing. He just had to trust them.

xxx

Laxus came back into the guildhall out of breath, dragging a struggling person with him.

"There," he said, throwing his prisoner on the floor. "This is what we're up against."

It was Bicklow who had made him do it; Bickslow being altogether too comfortable with defeat. Well, all right, there was more to it than that. There was the shield for one thing, enabling him to get outside and _see_ them, without them being able to get to him. The shield would let Fairy Tail wizards in and out of it, but no-one else. And there was the smell too. Those attackers smelled so _ordinary_. Once he figured it out it had taken almost no time at all.

"He has a magical weapon," Laxus said. He was out of breath. "I broke it, but you can see how they work. They all have them." Once he knew where the attacker was it had been easy enough to catch him. Too easy really.

"You mean, he's not even a wizard?" Bickslow asked.

"I'm a wizard," the man said, laughing. "Maybe not as powerful as you _guild _wizards, but that doesn't matter."

"Where did you get this weapon?" Ever asked the man, with such a demonic glare the man gave a little moan.

"My master got them," he said. "I don't know from where. You don't ask Forrester things like that."

"You have a master, but you're not in a guild. That makes no sense to me," said Bickslow. He took his visor off, revealing the strange tattoo on his face and his whirlpool eyes. "Perhaps if I look into your soul I can work it out."

"There's no need for that." The man backed away. "We're a thieves' guild. Forrester is our leader. Him and Grant are the only ones who know anything; the rest of us just do what we're told. There's supposed to be something valuable in this here guildhall, that's all they said. I don't even know what it is."

"What about the creature attacking the city?" Laxus asked fiercely.

"I don't…" The man broke off and went still.

Everything had been quiet since the shield went up, but now there was a new sound; a rumbling beneath them and a vibration with it, like a gentle earthquake.

"What's that?" asked Lisanna.

"Laxus," Ever said. "This weapon, I think I've figured out how it works. If I'm right we can…"

The floor suddenly shook violently and the rumble became a roar.

"That'll be the earth wizard." The captured thief had staggered and fallen as the guildhall shook, but he didn't seem rattled. He sounded impressed.

Laxus grabbed him by the throat, if only to make him look frightened again. "What are you talking about?" he shouted.

"The earth wizard," the man went on. "He only joined our guild for this job, so I don't know him. He said he could get the treasure out from your guildhall all by himself but none of them believed him. Maybe he was telling the truth."

xxx

Freed felt the foundations of the guildhall shake. He felt the ground under him begin to crumble and he fought to hold on to his magic circle and the shield, but it was no good. Then he found himself pushed up, thrown around in a pile of rubble and scrambling frantically just to stay alive and not to be crushed. What was happening? The shield was gone and his magic mostly gone with it. But he had enough to fly; just. He muttered the magic to craft wings and took off, trying to make sense of the jumble around him and find a way out.

"Oh no you don't, little butterfly!"

Freed was grabbed by an impossibly strong hand and pulled down against the thrust of his magical wings to be held in arms like iron bars.

"You're the shield-maker," the man said to him, softly, into his ear. "That's powerful magic. They'll come for you. I just need to wait."

Freed couldn't see him. He struggled uselessly. "Who are you?" he asked. "What do you want?"

"Is there really a great treasure down here?" the man asked.

"A treasure? I…"

The man laughed, making a rumbling in his chest Freed could feel since he was held so close. He tried again to wrench himself away.

"Keep still little butterfly," the man said. "I don't want to have to hurt you. I don't want your treasure either, that's what _they_ want, those thieves. All _I_ want is to fight the greatest wizard in all of Fiore; Natsu Dragneel."

"Natsu?" Freed couldn't hold on to his surprise. "But Natsu isn't… He isn't here."

"No. He's in the city fighting Grant's beast." The man laughed again. "But he'll be here soon. I can wait."

"Natsu isn't in Magnolia," Freed said. "He went… on a job, months ago. No-one's seen him…"

"You're lying!"

Freed had not expected such an explosion. The other man had been so soft voiced up till then, almost gentle. He found himself flung away, able to catch a glimpse of his assailant, a surprisingly young man with dark hair and a face filled with furious anger, before being hit by a force seemingly from nowhere and knowing no more.

xxx

The shield went down and the barrage began again, but at least the earthquake had stopped.

"What's going on?" asked Bickslow. "Where'd the shield go?"

Laxus didn't want to think about what that meant. "What did you say Ever?" he asked sharply.

"I think I know how to mess up those weapons, if I tune my attack to the right frequency… I just need to get up high."

"All right. You go up. Bicks, go out the back and I'll cover the front." It was best to get moving, take action. He could think about Freed later.

He peered cautiously out of the door, looking for a target, and he heard Evergreen call her fairy machine gun out over the roof of the guild, saw the sparks of it spiralling down, beautiful in the night. He stepped out, ready to parry a blast of magic but none came, and none continued to come.

Laxus could smell some of the attackers; they were near. He moved towards the smell.

"It's not going to work," he heard someone say. "They've blown the Maadricks somehow, blast them."

"I thought they were all meant to be in the city fighting the beast," another voice joined in.

"Well they're not, are they? We'd better get out of here."

You won't, Laxus resolved, grimly.

"What happened to Hal?" one of the voices asked the other.

"He went in to take out the shield, but he never came back. Forget him. Let's go!"

And Laxus' resolution revolved like lightning, one hundred and eighty degrees. The attackers had given up, all except the one who had taken out Freed and was still in the guildhall.

xxx

"I'm sorry," the earth wizard said. "Are you all right? You're bleeding."

Freed sat up and his head whirled.

"Of course you would lie to me. Why would you tell secrets to some stranger attacking your guild?"

"I wasn't lying."

"Freed!" Laxus shouted from somewhere above.

Freed found himself immediately dragged up and once more held, looking up to Laxus who was stood in what had once been the doorway to the basement. He felt a fool to need rescuing at all, but at the same time, the sight of Laxus stood there so strong and fierce made his heart pound.

xxx

"Who are you and where is Natsu Dragneel?" the strange wizard demanded.

Laxus laughed. "That's none of your damn business. But you may be interested to know that all of your friends have run away, except the one we have as a prisoner. They failed. They didn't steal anything. Perhaps you would like to run away too?"

"I do not have any friends, or at least, none of my own. I seem to have collected one of yours though."

He let go of Freed with one arm so he could build up a spell of the earth, making the ground shake, crumble and crack. Laxus tumbled forwards, stumbling and sliding as the stairs collapsed under him. And Freed was still helplessly held by the one strong arm round his neck.

"I will fight my way through every member of your so-called guild until I get to Natsu Dragneel!" the earth wizard declared.

What does he want with Natsu? Laxus wondered. It didn't matter to him much though. This wizard might be young, but he had destroyed the guildhall, more or less, and he had hurt Freed. There was no way he was going to get away with any of that.

The ground was still again. It seemed this wizard was not able to use his magic continually. Laxus had his eyes on Freed. He couldn't tell if his captain was badly hurt, but he could see Freed was working on something. The other man was over-confident and probably not very smart. No match for Freed. Freed made lightning; a bolt of it between him and the younger wizard, blasting them apart and making Laxus laugh out loud. Lightning! And there stood Freed with his sword drawn and not a hair out of place.

The earth wizard started toward Freed angrily, but Laxus was not having that. He threw a bolt of energy that knocked the other man back and into a heap on the ground.

"Freed, get out of here!" Laxus shouted.

"You don't need to fight him." Freed found his way to Laxus' side over the debris.

"The hell I don't!"

Anyway, the earth had gone back to shaking. Laxus began to feel sick, the old motion sickness kicking in. He groaned, and battled to resume focus. The strange wizard was gone! When had that happened? But he was back almost immediately, shooting out of the ground right at Laxus' feet, his attack knocking Laxus strangely slowly through the air as colours flashed around him; white, red, dark red, black. He growled and scrambled up shaking his head.

"Freed, get out of the way, damn you!" Fighting indoors was stupid, dangerous. The building around them was collapsing. There was no room for a proper attack, but what choice did he have? "Lightning dragon; ROAR!"

It was messy. The lightning attack did almost as much damage as the earthquakes had, but the earth wizard was not done, not yet. He kept on going, throwing rocks and earth and chunks of wall, all of his attacks falling short or simply lacking the energy to do any damage. "I will defeat you," he said. "I will defeat all of you fairies and then I will fight Natsu Dragneel and I will defeat him too."

"I don't know why you keep going on about Natsu," Laxus said. "He's not here and I am. And I have already defeated you."

"Natsu Dragneel is the only wizard in this guild worth fighting. You are nobody."

"Say that again!" Laxus was incensed. He prepared another attack as the earth wizard hauled himself wearily to his feet.

"Laxus, don't," Freed said. "He's had enough."

Laxus was tired. He felt sick and his wounds were beginning to hurt. He pushed Freed out of the way and aimed his attack at the same time, but he had reckoned without Freed's agility. Freed danced back in front of him to take half of the blast and fling the other half away with his sword.

"What are you doing? Oh God, Freed!" Laxus threw himself down beside his friend. The earth wizard was gone, burrowed away into the ground.

"I'm all right," Freed said, as his eyes slid closed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Butterfly Part Two**

Freed woke up in his own bed, with sunlight pouring through the window and Laxus sprawled out asleep beside him. Laxus! Freed had slept next to Laxus plenty of times before, but never in this place. Laxus was wearing his coat still, and even his boots, and a layer of mud and brick dust from… whenever it was, face turned away. Freed kept as still as he could so as not to wake him.

But it was inevitable of course.

Laxus groaned and rolled over, blinking in the bright light and rubbing his eyes. "You're awake," he said. "Hey, Freed's awake!" he shouted.

"Who are you talking to?" Freed asked.

"Bickslow and Ever." Laxus leapt up and dashed to the door. "Where is everyone?" he bellowed, to no answer. "What's the time? They must have gone already. Hell!" He sat back down on Freed's bed. "I have to go too," he said. "The guildhall's pretty much destroyed, that's why we all came here. I hope you don't mind the invasion."

"No, I…" Freed got stuck looking at Laxus. His shirt was bloody and ripped, showing white bandages underneath.

"So it's either building work – not my strong suit – or shovelling dead monster from the centre of the city."

"The monster was real?" Freed shifted to lift himself up and realised that was a bad idea. Everything hurt. "I thought it must have been an illusion."

"It was real all right. They reckon it came from the eastern mountains, but it was an old creature and it was already dying. Gramps thinks they shrunk it and brought it to Magnolia, then let it go. It only attacked the city because it was confused. Anyway our guys didn't need to do much, just move people out of the way and wait for it to die."

Laxus looked worn out still, Freed realised, despite whatever sleeping he'd managed to do. "I'll come with you."

"Don't be an idiot! Erza said you…" Laxus looked at his hands. "Why did you do that? I thought I'd… I mean… I could have killed you."

"I'm fine." Freed didn't answer the question. He didn't know the answer.

"You'd better be," Laxus said, getting up. "Listen, I know you don't really like… houseguests. They're putting up tents back at the guild. We're going to stay there while it's being rebuilt…" He smiled uncertainly. "I'll see you around." And he was gone.

xxx

"Laxus!" Makarov called.

The tents were all up at Fairy Tail. People sat around fires laughing and drinking under the stars, more people even than usual it seemed. It was like a festival.

"What do you want?" Laxus asked. He hadn't slept at all the night before, what with one thing and another, and had spent the best part of the day cutting up a dead monster and hauling it out of the city by the cartload. He wanted a bath really, but since that wasn't going to happen he reckoned he could settle for a bed, any kind of bed.

"I've been waiting all day for you to show up." The old man was serious. "We need to talk."

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Not here!" Makarov said. "And we need Erza, and Mira as well."

Laxus hauled himself wearily after the old man to the other side of the guildhall where the furniture had been dragged out of the hall and there were plenty of places to sit, but no fires. It was cold. Laxus wrapped his coat round himself and sat down, elbows on the table, head in his hands.

"I've been talking to your friend, Laxus," Makarov said.

"My friend?" Laxus looked up bleary eyed.

"The thief you captured."

"Oh, him." Laxus had forgotten about that man. So much had happened since then. "Did he have anything interesting to say? He didn't when I talked to him."

"His name is Felix Bergmeister and he's not actually a thief at all, he's a fence, a well-known one."

"Doesn't sound very interesting to me," said Laxus.

"You don't seem to understand the gravity of the situation," said Erza.

"It's all right Erza," Makarov said, putting a hand on her arm. "Laxus, our guild was attacked by thieves who wanted to steal a 'great treasure' from us. That's what Bickslow and Evergreen told me anyway."

"So what? We sent them packing. Easily, I might add."

"They used a complex plan to lure us away, they used magical weapons I've never seen before that ought to be illegal and they brought a fence. They were convinced this treasure was under the guildhall; they even had an earth wizard to dig it out…"

"Their earth wizard went rogue on them," Laxus said.

"Yes, and that's interesting too, isn't it?" Makarov asked, his lined face alive with intelligence. "I can't leave this, Laxus. I can't have people attacking the guild to steal from us. We can't let them get away…"

"So that's it." Laxus wrenched himself up so that he could stand over the others from his glowering height. "You think I shouldn't have let them go. Well I'm sorry, but…"

"No-one's saying that." Mira jumped up lightly and tugged at Laxus' arm.

Laxus stood firm, waking himself up enough to think. "What is this 'great treasure'?" he asked. "You're spooked because the world at large has got hold of the idea Fairy Tail has something valuable hidden under its guildhall. If you want me to defend it for you, hadn't you better tell me what it is?"

"It doesn't matter to you," Makarov said.

"If it's a danger to the lives of my friends, I'd say it does." Laxus had leaned down so he could deal his savage words right into the old man's face, but Makarov looked back at him with equal steel in his eyes.

"Laxus," said Erza sternly. "Sit down! Do you really think the master would put anyone's life in danger if he could help it? There are things at play here that you do not understand and it is not your place to question."

"Whose place is it then?" Laxus asked. "What kind of discussion can we possibly have if we don't _know_ anything? I've had enough of this!" He turned and stalked away with no idea where he was going.

_Damn_ the old geezer! Laxus had only wanted to sleep but now, feeling like this, he wasn't going to be able to. He didn't want to go near the fires or the tents where everyone was still drinking and laughing, curse them! He wandered through the young trees on the edge of the wood behind the guildhall and he could smell Mira coming after him the whole time.

"What do you want?" he asked, stopping to let her catch up.

"Nothing really," she said, shivering. "It's cold isn't it?"

He let her come close enough to burrow under his arm and snake one of hers round his waist. She _was_ cold.

"Is Freed all right?" she asked.

Laxus didn't know whether it was Mira herself or her question that was doing it, but he felt his tension begin to fall away. "I think so. He's…"

"And how about you?"

"I'm tired," he admitted. Perhaps that was all it was.

"Come on," Mira said. It was dark, but somehow Laxus could still see her smile. "Master doesn't always get everything right."

"…priority has to be rebuilding for the time being anyway. Everyone's exhausted. Look at Laxus, he's dead on his feet! I agree with you, of course, but I…" Erza stopped abruptly as she became aware of Laxus and Mira approaching.

"All right," Makarov said. "We will put the plan on hold for five days. That should be enough time to get the main structural work done if everyone helps."

"And what _is_ the plan?" Laxus asked.

xxx

Freed stayed at home for three days. He lived in a modest house outside the city with few neighbours because he preferred solitude when he could get it. One or two guild-mates came for short visits at first, when he needed them, and he was grateful for their help, but after a while they stopped coming and he found he was relieved. None of them was Laxus anyway.

But the peace and quiet wasn't going to last forever. The guildhall was destroyed, Laxus had said, which meant every member of the guild ought to be helping fix it up again, every self-respecting member anyway. There was nothing wrong with Freed any more that he couldn't go; he was fine. He made up his mind in the morning, then put it off and put it off all day until it was almost too late.

You could always _hear _the Fairy Tail guildhall before you saw it. Tonight it was louder than ever, and with a smell too, a bonfire smell; everyone was outside. And Freed slowed his walk without really intending to, as if there was a force pushing against him, keeping him away. He was close enough to hear snatches of conversation.

"…I didn't have _that_ much to drink!"

"That's because you're not a real man. I always said…"

The same as ever. But what was it, making Freed balk at the idea of stepping into the circle and being part of it?

He stepped back instead, back up the lane away from Fairy Tail. Just for a moment, he told himself. Just for a moment to gather courage. And he almost tripped over something lying in the grass under the shadows of the trees.

The something groaned, a dark shadow in a dark shadow; a person.

"Are you all right?" Freed asked, crouching down to look more closely.

"I'm… Hey, it's you. Butterfly!" The man laughed weakly.

And Freed's eyes widened. "You shouldn't be here," he said.

"Where should I be?" the earth wizard asked. "I'm waiting for Natsu Dragneel. He isn't here. I'd know if he was. I'm sorry I called you a liar."

xxx

"My name is Halyan, Hal…"

Freed had half-carried the earth wizard back to his own house without even thinking about the reason he had gone to the guildhall in the first place.

"What do you want with Natsu?"

"I told you. He's the strongest wizard in Fiore. I want to fight him."

Freed shook his head and smiled. "Natsu isn't even the strongest wizard in Fairy Tail."

"Shut up Butterfly. I don't want to argue with you."

The earth wizard was filthy and shivering with cold. He was also starving. He fell on the food Freed set out for him and wolfed it down without looking at it and certainly without tasting it. Then he was pushed in the direction of the bathroom and came out dripping wet and a different colour, but still too weak to stand on his own. And he had plenty of superficial wounds and bruises, one nasty gash on his left shoulder.

"That's infected," Freed said. "It's giving you a fever."

The earth wizard shrugged. "I don't care." He let himself fall onto Freed's bed.

"You should. If you leave something like that and you live outside, like you were doing, you could die from it. You probably would. I can fix it for you if you like."

Freed couldn't help looking at the young man as he bandaged his shoulder, staring at him, his thick, dark hair hanging in wet spikes, his dark eyes shining. He was like Laxus, somehow… smaller, but with the same kind of build.

"You should go to sleep," Freed said.

"What about you?" Hal asked.

"I'm… I've got…" Freed's house was small, but there were other places in it he could sleep comfortably enough.

"This is your bed isn't it? There's plenty of room."

Freed smiled to himself, remembering how three days ago he had woken up in that same bed with Laxus, and it was nothing. It meant nothing.

And it wasn't until he climbed in next to the earth wizard that he realised he was ridiculously exhausted; exhausted beyond all reason. It didn't matter where he was, who he was with. He knew he was headed for oblivion and nothing else.

"Butterfly," Hal said softly.

Freed was falling into unconsciousness. His eyes were closed, but he could feel the earth wizard's fingers touching his hair.

"I think you're beautiful."


	3. Chapter 3

**Butterfly Part Three**

"I don't want this to be common knowledge," Makarov said.

"That would certainly be your style." Laxus had his feet up on the table in Makarov's room in the guildhall where his grandfather had called a meeting of the guild's S class wizards.

Makarov glowered. "I know what you think, Laxus, and it doesn't make any difference to what we're going to do, so you might as well put your energy into _listening_, rather than passing judgement."

"And what _are_ we going to do?" Laxus was still annoyed that the old geezer didn't seem to trust him with the guild's secrets, but he was fed up being a builder's labourer and keen to get on with a different kind of work.

"To start with, we have three objectives. I am going to meet with the magic council, to see if they can answer any of my questions. Erza is going to the eastern mountains to find out where that monster came from if she can. Your job will be to follow the fence when we let him go."

"Just follow him?"

"Well it depends. I don't think that particular lowlife has the resources to do anything other than go back to his guild, but even if he doesn't, he'll go somewhere, to someone who knows him. We need to locate that guild and find out what they know, or what they think they know, about Fairy Tail, and how they learned it. You can take your team."

"And I get to stay here and supervise the building work!" Mira said, with a twinkling smile.

"That's not a job to be taken lightly!" snapped Erza. "It must be done properly. Master, I feel that I…"

"I have made up my mind," said Makarov sternly.

"You said three objectives," Laxus said. "What about the earth wizard?"

"What about him?" Makarov asked. "If he's with the rest of the guild we'll find him one way or another. If he's not, why worry?"

"He was after Natsu."

Erza laughed. "Natsu can take care of himself," she said.

xxx

The guildhall was a building site still, but the underground work was all done and the main hall back in use. Laxus found Evergreen and Bickslow in there, eating lunch.

"We've got a job to go on. Today." Laxus leaned over the table so he didn't need to talk loudly.

"Excellent!" said Bicklow. "What's it pay?"

"Nothing. It's for Gramps." Laxus reached to pick up a piece of chicken from Bickslow's plate and then thought better of it. "Don't suppose you've seen Freed this morning, have you?"

"Haven't seen him for days," Bickslow said. "I went round his place a while back, got the feeling he wanted to be left alone."

Laxus stood up. "I'll go get him," he said. "Be ready to go in an hour."

xxx

Freed answered his door half-dressed. "Laxus," he said, holding the door open with a foot while he twisted his hair up into a knot with both hands. Freed had gotten skinnier lately, Laxus couldn't help but notice, and his familiar wary expression seemed to have developed into something permanent.

"How are you?" Laxus asked gruffly.

"Good," said Freed. "I'm good. Thank you." He stood awkwardly, waiting.

"We've got a job, for Gramps." Laxus said. He didn't seem to be able to say anything beyond a few barked words for some reason. Oh well. "We're leaving in about an hour. Come to the guildhall."

"All right," Freed said. "I'll be there." He looked away from Laxus for a moment, at something in the room behind him, before looking back and smiling synthetically.

xxx

"You could try tidying up after yourself," Freed suggested.

"That'll take five minutes," said Hal. "How long are you going to be gone?"

"I told you. I don't know."

"And where are you going?"

"Don't know that either."

"But _Laxus_ says you have to go, so you have to go."

"It's not Laxus. It's my guild master."

"Why be in a guild?"

"Or you could do some training. If you want to fight Natsu, you're going to need to."

"Why be in a guild?" Hal asked again. He was kneeling up on the bed.

Freed turned round from the mirror where he'd been tying his tie.

"You look gorgeous," Hal said. "You could leave the guild though, couldn't you?"

"Thank you, but I am not going to leave Fairy Tail. And you're making me late."

"That's because I don't want you to go."

"I can tell."

"I could make you stay you know. I'm stronger than you."

"Hey, Freed! Get your butt out here!"

"Freed, Freed!"

Freed froze. It was Bickslow's voice, and the voices of Bickslow's 'babies'. Freed hadn't locked the front door, he never did because the old runes he'd set up years ago would stop anyone who wasn't a friend coming in anyway.

"Butterfly," Hal said, "why are you so scared of everybody?" He stood up and took Freed's hand, looked into his eyes. They were the same height, but Hal was much bigger, stronger, or physically stronger anyway.

"Will you be here when I get back?" Freed asked.

"Probably," said Hal.

xxx

"So what the hell is going on?" Bickslow asked. He hadn't said anything straight away, perhaps he'd decided not to, but then couldn't help himself.

"What do you mean?" Freed asked. He knew what Bickslow meant.

"Oh, well now I know something," Bickslow said, with a wide grin. "First of all, you're late. And come on, you're never late. For anything. Then, you're having a conversation with some guy in your house, only you don't introduce him or anything. Isn't that rude?"

"Rude, rude!" Bickslow's little totem dolls echoed.

Freed didn't say anything. He had been hoping Bickslow hadn't heard them talking. Or maybe it wasn't called 'hoping'. Maybe it was called 'practising a deliberate delusion'.

"It's definitely rude," Bickslow answered his own question happily. "Oh, yes, and then of course there's the part where you've been away from the guild for days, hiding, no-one's seen you. Now you've gone a really cute colour. How could I not be intrigued? So come on, who is he?"

"He's… not… anybody…"

"Do I know him?"

"No!"

"OK. Where'd you meet him?"

"I…" Freed stopped walking and closed his eyes. "Bickslow, please could you not… tell anyone… It's just, it's new, that's all. I don't…"

"Ohhh!" Bickslow said, still grinning. "And by 'anyone' you mean Laxus and Ever, right?"

"I mean anyone."

"Like a secret, just between us?"

"Like that."

"Secret, secret!"

"I suppose I _could_." Bickslow tapped his fingers on his face with an expression of pure glee. "All right. Tell me his name and I'll keep your secret to my grave."

Freed thought frantically. Did Laxus know Hal's name? Did anyone? "His name's Yan," he said, playing it safe.

xxx

They had been keeping the fence, Felix Bergmeister, locked in a room in the part of the guildhall that hadn't been destroyed. He _was_ a wizard, a minor rune mage, but he had no skills that involved escaping from captivity.

"I can assure you, we are as sick of you as you are of us," Makarov said when he unlocked the door and let the man escape finally.

Bergmeister just gave him a sour look and hustled away like a scalded cat.

"It's going to be difficult to keep after him without being seen," said Evergreen. "We're not exactly inconspicuous."

"Doesn't matter if he sees you," Makarov said. "Even if he doesn't, he's not a complete fool. He'll expect us to follow him or track him somehow."

"Come on, let's go," said Laxus. "I can see a train ride somewhere in my future. Might as well accept the inevitable."

Laxus was right. The man hurried along the streets of Magnolia towards the station without looking behind him, as if he knew he was being followed but didn't _want_ to know it. He was a weasely kind of fellow, not small exactly, but kind of stooped, wearing a rather gaudy plum-coloured coat, easy to pick out in a crowd.

xxx

"Are you all right?" Freed asked quietly.

Laxus looked round. This was the first time Freed had spoken to him since he turned up at the guildhall with Bickslow. There was definitely something up with Freed, but now wasn't the time to worry about it. "No," he said. "I feel like hell."

"Hey man," Bickslow said. "Don't hurl on me!"

They were hurtling through Fiore on a train, all sat together in one carriage with a good view of the fence through the connecting doors. He hadn't moved in the past hour. Laxus sat up straighter and went back to watching through half-closed eyes, feeling as if his entire insides might burst out of him at any moment. It was better if he thought about something else.

"Do you want to sleep?" Freed asked.

Laxus looked at him again, chewing his lip, nervous. What did Freed have to be nervous about? "No. I want to stay with it. I'll be all right."

"If you're sure."

Laxus nodded and turned away, settling his gaze on the plum-coloured coat though the windows in the doors. Except the plum-coloured coat wasn't there any more. He jumped up, making the whole world reel significantly. "He's gone," he said.

"What?" said Ever.

"He probably just took a stroll," Bickslow said calmly.

"Well how about you go stroll on after him and find out?" Laxus said grimly, as waves of nausea washed over him. "And you two can go and see how things look from the outside," he added to Ever and Freed.

xxx

They couldn't find Bergmeister anywhere of course. Bickslow walked the entire length of the train and Ever and Freed flew up and down the outside, looking in the windows and on the roof. Freed wondered if he was glad. It simply hadn't occurred to him that the job Laxus had told him about would have anything to do with the thieves who had attacked Fairy Tail.

"He can't have disappeared," Laxus said, reasonably enough. Laxus looked horrible; green and sweaty. "He only has rune magic. You can't use that for invisibility, can you?" He looked sharply at Freed.

And Freed _felt _it, that look, like a knife cutting into him. "I don't… It depends…"

"Oh God…" Laxus lurched for the open window and flung himself half out of it so he could vomit, heartily and copiously all over the passing countryside. He lay for a moment, folded over the sill, his energy completely spent, but then began to claw his way back in. "Under," he said breathlessly. "We looked in and out and over, but we never looked under."

Freed wondered what on earth he meant, but not for long because Laxus pulled the outside door open and began to climb under the train. Freed made made wings and flew out after him, flew low so he could see under the carriage where the missing mage was clinging on upside down in all the rattling noise. It was far too late by the time the fence clocked Laxus. He was wrenched free and dragged back up into the train, protesting mightily all the time.

"You can sit with us now," Laxus said. "You might as well." He leaned back and closed his eyes.

"You don't really think I'd be stupid enough to simply lead you straight to my guild, do you?" Bergmeister asked.

"Why not? You're stupid enough to think you could get away from us by hiding under a train," said Bickslow happily.

"You can go anywhere you like," Ever said. "We don't care. But wherever you go, we're coming with you. You'll get tired of us in the end."

Freed felt sick. Not as sick, he supposed, as Laxus felt, but sick nonetheless. Master Makarov wanted to find out all about the thieves who had attacked the guild, of course he did. Freed churned it all over and over in his mind until he felt sicker still. But there was nothing he could do about it _right now_, was there? He would have to wait until they got back, and maybe by then the earth wizard would be gone.

xxx

"So this is where you live, is it?" Evergreen asked, as the train dragged itself to a halt in Hyacinth, the end of the line.

"No comment," said Bergmeister.

The town square outside the train station was beautiful; warm honey-coloured pillars laden with flowering vines and sunshine. Laxus had begun to feel better the minute the train stopped, it was always like that. And now he pulled in a lungful of evening air and realised his heart was light again. Not so much the fence, however. He looked worn to a frazzle as he stood in the middle of the square, looking left and right and straight up as well, as if he had no idea where to go or what to do. Then he seemed to come to a decision and set off, with the Thunder Legion following menacingly behind.

He went to a hotel. "These people will have a room too, I expect," he said to the receptionist. "But they can pay for themselves."

Laxus noticed that the man used almost all of the jewel he seemed to have just for the one night. "You're out of jewel and you're out of ideas too, aren't you?" he said.

"Maybe," the man said. "You'll have to wait and see."

Freed wrote runes on the door and the windows so Bergmeister couldn't get out and in the morning there he was, sat primly on the bed, looking better for having washed and perhaps also because he had made up his mind.

"All right," he said. "You win. I'll take you to the guild. They might have moved on, mind you. They're not the type of guild stays in one place long. But I expect we'll be able to find them."

He didn't say anything at all after that, but just got up and began trudging sadly down the stairs.

"Hey, what about breakfast?" Bickslow called.

"Shut up!" said Ever.

They wended through the streets of the city in the early morning, around the pretty, old part in the centre and further out to where the houses were more run down and there were fewer people.

Laxus smelled something strange and strong. Strong magic. He stopped walking.

"What's wrong?" Freed asked, putting a hand on his arm.

"I don't know," Laxus said. "Something."

"This is the place," Bergmeister said dully, reaching out to open a whitewashed door.

And suddenly that smell of magic amplified massively and Laxus found himself flying through the air to push the fence out of the way before he… Before he what? Laxus wasn't sure, it was a reflex. And it sent the man sprawling into the road, rolling.

The white door hung crooked and innocuous. Laxus took in a breath and pulled it aside, stepping into the building. And the white heat of a spell exploded around him. He was ready for it, but still.

"Laxus!" He wasn't sure whose voice it was because he couldn't hear properly.

"Don't let him come in here!" Laxus yelled.

There was no light in the room to speak of, but there was a smell that you didn't need to be a dragon slayer to recognise.

xxx

Freed let Ever make the light. She could do it quicker than he could. Laxus was all right, of course he was. Laxus was invincible. But every other person in the room was dead.

It was strange to see them like that, those thieves that Master Makarov had wanted them to catch, so completely caught.

"This spell is a trap, it's powerful magic." Bickslow said. "Freed, look."

Freed spared a glance for Evergreen, hauling Laxus to his feet. Then he went to look at the runes in the doorway where Bickslow was stood.

"Yes," he said. "A trap set to kill anyone from the guild who came in here. It worked." He looked out of the open door into the street where Bergmeister still lay on the ground, his eyes glazed over with shock, but alive.

If the fence had stepped through that door he would be dead. And if Hal had come back with the rest of his guild, he would be dead too.


	4. Chapter 4

**Butterfly Part Four**

Freed was supposed to be putting up a barrier in the street, but he couldn't concentrate. His hand shook and the runes swam before his eyes.

"Hey, Freed!" Laxus called. "Come on, we need to get these bodies out of here."

"Give me a minute, I can't…"

"What's wrong with you?" Laxus demanded.

"Nothing. I…" Freed wiped his face with an arm and tried harder.

xxx

The two men from the Magic Council had arrived like white knights, taking over and shrivelling everyone with their glacial stares.

"This is very serious," the one called Lahar said. "The only one of these people known to us is this man, Grant, a wizard from the south who is able to change the size of any object, animal or person. The others, according to your friend Mr Bergmeister, are petty criminals, thieves, but no-one deserves to die just for that."

"So you'll be able to find out who did it?" asked Laxus.

"Unfortunately not," said Lahar. "The spell they used faded before we got here. There is no evidence at all as to who they are or where they might be now."

"But didn't Gramps tell you what happened to our guildhall? He should be _at_ the Magic Council. I expected you would have brought him here with you."

"Master Makarov visited the Magic Council yesterday. He left early this morning, but he did not speak to _us_. _We_ do not know what was said at that meeting." The other man was quieter voiced and had a watchful look about him.

"You do not understand the workings of the Magic Council," said Lahar.

Laxus suddenly felt an urge to punch the man in his smug face, but he resisted it and settled for glowering.

Lahar turned to his colleague. "We need to get back. We have wasted enough time here as it is."

"You mean you are going to do nothing?" Laxus couldn't help raising his voice.

"No Mr Dreyar, I do not mean that," said Lahar archly. "We will monitor the situation and investigate as best we can using all the resources at our disposal, but there is nothing more we can do _here_ and _now_ and I can assure you we have many more pressing concerns."

"Wait!" Bergmeister the fence suddenly leapt forward and caught hold of Lahar's arm. "You have to take me with you. You can't leave me here. I'm a dead man if you do!"

Lahar's laugh was almost as irritating as everything else about him. He pulled his arm free and looked at the man with a patronising frown. "I'm afraid that will not be possible," he said. "But I don't believe you are in any danger. The perpetrators of this crime are long gone and do not want to be found."

"But she, I mean, they…" The little weasel was trying to say something but he didn't get a chance.

"Please update us with any developments," Lahar said crisply, and then he and his companion were simply not there any more.

Laxus found he was bewildered. The sudden absence of two such powerful men was enough to cause that, not to mention the presence of all those dead people. He looked around at the wreck of the building they were in with its boarded up windows and broken furniture There was nothing else, no clues. Bickslow was helping the city guards carry out the last of the bodies and Laxus could see Freed standing motionless in the street next to his shimmering barrier. Evergreen stood still too, staring at the fence with a calculated look on her face.

"You said _she_," she said to him slowly. "Who did you mean?"

"No I didn't," Bergmeister snapped.

"Yes you did!" said Laxus, as everything sprang back neatly into focus. "You meant the person who did this. You know who she is, don't you?"

"No I don't!" Bergmeister backed away, but not very far.

"So, you've been lying to us all this time," said Ever cooly. "How very interesting."

"Oh, I don't know Ever," said Laxus. "I'm not sure it's all _that_ interesting. I think it's about time we went back to Magnolia. Bickslow, are we done here?"

"Sure are," said Bickslow.

Laxus stepped out into the street where Freed's barrier was disintegrating to allow the city guard's transport to depart and besides that, the sun was shining. Ever came out too.

"You can't just leave me here by myself!" The fence burst out of the building, his face almost as plum-coloured as his coat.

"We easily can," said Bickslow. "Very easily."

"Easily," said Bicklow's 'babies'. "Easily!"

"Unless you tell us what you know, that is. All of it I mean," said Laxus.

Bergmeister swallowed uncomfortably. "All right," he said. "I'll tell you. But not here. We might as well go to my place. I don't suppose it matters any more."

xxx

"I am a fence, as you know," Bergmeister began. "But that doesn't mean what it used to mean." His voice was slightly whiney, not easy to listen to. "These days it's wiser to ally yourself with a guild, and old Forrester wasn't that bad for a boss, usually. It's a shame he's dead, I liked him."

Bergmeister's house was in the older part of the city, surprisingly large and grand, but also entirely empty of human life, not much like a place where anyone lived. There were plants though, plants everywhere, vines curling over the bannisters, flowering trees standing in the hall, and all of them shining with health. The Thunder Legion were sat in a drawing room and had been given drinks.

"There's nothing to eat here, I'm afraid," Bergmeister said. "But always plenty to _drink_."

Freed was only half there. The other half of him was still thinking about what Laxus had said as they walked through the city.

"So, your friend the earth wizard wasn't one of those bodies. I expect you're pleased about that." That's what Laxus had said.

"My… friend?"

Laxus had just laughed, and gone on to say something unrelated, to Bickslow, and then laughed some more, as if his words had had no significance.

"Anyway," the fence went on. "My job is to find homes for things that have been stolen, and sometimes it is to recommend people to do the job of stealing. This was one of those times." He was beginning to sound as if he was boasting.

"Before you ask, I don't _know_ the woman. I never met her before and I sincerely hope I never meet her again, but since she knows who I am and where I live and she has killed almost every other member of my guild, I can't afford to rely on hope."

"No, you plan to rely on us instead," said Ever.

"But you want to catch her don't you?" Bergmeister seemed more confident in his own home, but his voice still wavered and his hand shook as he raised his glass. "It's win/win the way I see it. I get protection and you get your perp, or whatever you want to call her."

"You need to tell us more," Laxus said, frowning. "What is her name and what, exactly, did she want from Fairy Tail?"

"And what magic does she use?" asked Ever.

The fence sighed and closed his eyes. "Her name is Shinn, or at least, that's the name I know. She may have others. I have never seen her use any magic exactly, but she carries a sword and, frankly, looks well equipped to use it. She was offering an offensively large quantity of jewel to retrieve an object from the beneath the basement of the Fairy Tail guildhall. A _large_ object, but that was no problem to us, since we have a wizard in our ranks who is able to significantly alter a thing's size. Or should I say _had_."

"And an earth wizard to dig it out," said Laxus.

"Eh?" said Bergmeister. "You mean Halyan Soong? Oh no, he was never part of the plan. Forrester let him tag along to make up the numbers; none of us fully appreciated how… talented he was. And he seems to have got away, lucky boy!"

Freed found he couldn't stand sitting there in that ornate room while that obnoxious man talked so casually about Hal. He jumped up and strode out of the French doors into the fence's garden which was breathtakingly beautiful.

But he wasn't allowed to be alone for long.

"Hey," said Laxus. "What's up?"

Why did Laxus have to go and decide to be so considerate all of a sudden? "Nothing, I…" That wasn't good enough though. "I don't like that man. I don't like his house either, all this affluence that's come from… It's making me feel sick."

"Me too," said Laxus, frowning. "But that's not enough to get me to walk out on my team when we're in the middle of finding stuff out and making a plan."

Not so much considerate then, Freed felt as if Laxus had punched him in the gut. Maybe Laxus _should_ punch him in the gut.

"Something's off with you," Laxus went on. "I can understand if you don't want to talk about it, but you can't be here unless you sort it out. We need to be on our game for this. This Shinn character is out to kill people and we don't know what kind of magic she uses. I want to catch her; I _don't_ want to fail, do you get it?"

Freed nodded, but he couldn't look up.

Laxus put a hand on his shoulder. "Go back to Fairy Tail Freed," he said. "Someone needs to tell the old geezer what's going on anyway."

xxx

Freed was exhausted. By the time he got back to Magnolia it was late, dark. He had to drag himself through the city, to the guildhall, even though that wasn't where he wanted to go. All he could think about, all he had been able to think about for the whole of the long train journey was Hal. What was he going to say to Hal? Would Hal even be there? That was the most frightening thought. He tried not to think it, but that was useless. And at the same time, he had to think about how Hal _shouldn't_ be there. Hal _wouldn't_ be there if Freed were really a loyal member of Fairy Tail. He had done so many things wrong, it made his head spin. But it was too late to _un_do them.

There were still plenty of people up and about in the guildhall, and it was looking less like a building site than it had the day before. Was it really only yesterday they had left to follow the fence? It seemed like a lifetime had passed since then.

"Hello! You look worn out! What's the news?" Mira came out from behind the bar. She put her hand up to touch Freed's face and then coiled her arm round his waist, smiling. Mira was easily the kindest person Freed had ever known, and he didn't deserve any kindness.

Still, he couldn't help but smile in return. "I have to speak to Master Makarov about my news, but how about you? Looks like the building work's been going well. Is Erza back?"

Mira laughed softly. "No! The reason we've been getting on so well is because she _isn't_ here! But shh! Don't tell anyone I said that. I actually think the mission Gramps sent her on was a wild goose chase."

Freed laughed with her while the lights in the room danced all around. God, he was tired.

"Go on," Mira said, letting go of him and pushing him away. "You'd better go and see Master before you fall asleep."

Makarov listened intently and frowned. "That's grave news indeed," he said, "but not entirely a surprise. There had to be more to it than a random attack by a mere band of thieves. Of course that Bergmeister character was lying, and I should have known it." He sat still and silent in thought for a moment.

"The Magic Council would not help us," Freed said.

"No. I wouldn't have expected them to. I went to ask them for information and they had little enough of that to offer, but help? No! They have their own problems, things far too important for the likes of us to know about!" He looked up from under his eyebrows and smiled. "Don't look so worried, my boy! We're a step further on than we were. I have great faith in Laxus and I'm sure you do too. Now why don't you sleep here tonight? You look ready to fall into bed. Have you eaten?"

"No, I…" Freed pushed his face into a smile. He couldn't remember when he had last eaten. "I just want to get home really, but thank you!"

He had to walk through the guildhall calmly, as if it was nothing. He walked away from the building too, but as soon as he was out of sight of it he began to run, and then to fly. It was stupid really, completely unnecessary, a waste of magic energy, but he seemed to have lost all reason anyway. What am I doing, he wondered? Not eating, lying to everyone, it seemed as if some unstoppable force was _making_ him do all those things. Making him fly faster and faster, beyond the strength he ought to have had until he arrived on his own doorstep, plunged through the door.

"Hal, Hal!" he shouted, trying desperately not to sound hysterical.

"Butterfly?" Hal appeared in the doorway and Freed launched himself upon him, so fiercely, that even though Hal caught him in strong arms, he overbalanced and they both fell to the floor. "What's the matter?" Hal asked.

"Nothing," Freed said. "Nothing is the matter. You're here." He closed his eyes and hid his face in Hal's chest.

"Why wouldn't I be here?" Hal sat up, lifting Freed up with him. "What's going on?"

"You said probably. You'd probably be here when I got back, that's what you said. But you're here. I'm glad, that's all."

"You're lying," Hal said. He pushed Freed away and stood up. "What's going on?"

"Nothing is going on. I'm not lying." Freed got up too, to find himself grabbed by the collar of his coat and held while a steam-hammer of a fist drove its way into his guts so hard and sudden that all the lights flashed and almost went out. "What are you…?"

The fist hit him again, uppercut to the jaw, and this time the lights went out completely.

xxx

Freed woke up in his own bed, lying with his head in Hal's lap. Hal was fiddling with Freed's hair, but he was looking away, out of the window and into the night so Freed was able to look up at him and admire him while he waited for his brains to unscramble themselves. The unscrambling got as far as the ache in his jaw and he raised his hand to it.

"Butterfly!" Hal had felt his movement. "I'm sorry I hurt you, I… You made me angry."

"It doesn't matter," Freed said. "And anyway, you were right, I was lying." He looked up to see Hal's reaction, half afraid, but too tired to do anything about it.

Hal smiled sadly. "Are you going to tell me the truth?"

"No, I can't."

"Because of Laxus." Hal was angry again, but he was keeping it under control.

"No, not Laxus. The guild. It's a secret, but it isn't my secret to just tell to whoever I choose. Can you understand that?"

"You don't need to be in a guild. You could leave."

"I might have to." Freed rolled around which caused his stomach to remind him of having been steam-hammered, he groaned.

"Why?" Hal asked.

"Because of you. Because I helped you. I brought you here and never told them about it. If I had told them, things would be different. Things would…" Maybe none of those people would have died. Freed felt tears squeeze out of his eyes and run down his face, dammit.

"You saved me from Laxus and let me get away. That's when I fell in love with you."

Freed laughed, he couldn't help it. "You're not in love with me," he said. "You hardly know me."

Hal pulled him up and into his arms. "I'm in love with you and you're in love with me. That's how it is. That's why you saved me from Laxus."

"I didn't save you," Freed said. "Laxus was angry and he didn't need to be. He thought you were destroying the guildhall so you could steal from us, but I knew you just wanted to fight Natsu. That's what you want isn't it?"

"That's what I want," Hal said, nodding.

Freed realised he was finally and irrevocably falling asleep. "You can fight Natsu," he said. "You won't win, but you can try, why not?"

"I will win," said Hal.

xxx

Laxus thought he might go mad in Bergmeister's house, day after day after day. They went out occasionally, but they all had to go together, so it was hardly a fun experience. Most of the time they stayed in the house and Laxus watched the fence care for his ridiculous collection of plants, a seemingly endless task. Ever found a library and took to reading, though most of the books were about either horticulture or antiques, neither of which she had any interest in. Bickslow seemed happily asleep most of the time.

"Does this go on forever, or do we get to go home at some point, one hopes?" Evergreen asked one evening.

Laxus honestly felt like growling at her. "I expect we do, but not yet," he said, though gritted teeth.

"All right, I was only asking," Ever said. "Did you know the vermiculous persanthus can only be found in spring when there is a full moon _and_ it has to be raining? No wonder they're so expensive. What was that?"

It wasn't much of a sound, like the scrape of metal against metal, but there was a smell too, and that was much stronger and more outlandish. Laxus jumped up from the half-stupor he had been lounging in and rushed for the fence's scent, coming from the gallery above the hall where there were more plants than anywhere. Ever went after him.

And there was someone else there; a slender woman dressed all in black. The sword she held seemed to emit some kind of vapour that twisted through the air around her. She was stood exactly behind Bergmeister, and he had not noticed her, but he soon would, as she was stretching out her hand to grab him.

Laxus darted forward like lightning to get to the fence first with Ever on his heels. The woman had seen him, but that didn't stop her. She took hold of Bergmeister and sliced through the air with her sword at the same time, carving out a grey shimmering shape in a way that shouldn't have been possible. The fence bellowed like a bull hippo, impressively loud, but entirely ineffectual as the swordswoman, Shinn, Laxus supposed, dived into her carved shape and vanished, dragging Bergmeister after her.

But it wasn't too late. Laxus had managed to gather a handful of plum-coloured coat and he wasn't letting go. He forced his way forward, through the shape and into thin air and light, a different place, falling, turning round to see that shape from the other side, as it diminished and disappeared entirely.


	5. Chapter 5

**Butterfly Part Five**

Laxus let go of whatever it was he had been holding, landed on hard ground, rock, all the breath knocked out of him and all his thoughts gone slow. He could tell that he was in a different place; the difference was an unpleasant feeling, like a rug pulled out from under you. It was cold, and the light was strange, diffuse and far away, not good enough to see clearly, and anyway the air was somehow too thick to let light through.

"What is this place?" he asked out loud, stumbling up to look around and finding nothing but earth and rock, a landscape of uncertain hills under a purple sky, no trees, no people, no noises. His voice didn't echo, but there _was_ something; the scrabbling of someone climbing up rocks in a hurry and that someone's breathing too, not far away.

Laxus burst forward and raced for it, using hands and feet to make his way up, around, onward, desperate. And there was the lithe stranger, encumbered by her red-faced prey, unable to move as fast as she must surely have wanted to.

Standing up tall on a rocky rise, she laughed. "You'd better hurry, hadn't you?" she said. "You don't want to be left behind in this place." Her voice was crisp and clear, and it was true too.

She scratched the air with her strange sword and Laxus pushed on up, just in time to throw himself through the carved archway before it closed.

Another different place, this one less alien, indoors. But that was all Laxus was able to notice before he had to squeeze his eyes closed and wrap his arms around his head against an onslaught of sound. He fell to the floor and rolled, soft carpet, eyes open long enough to glimpse a pattern, closed again. The sound was a dischord of high whine and wail, vibrating in nauseating pulses, stabbing away inside his head, but somehow not obliterating other sounds.

"So this is your attempt at redemption, is it?" A woman's voice, melodious and beautiful.

Laxus wrenched his eyes open so he could see her. She was as lovely as her voice, dressed in silk with curling golden hair and wide green eyes. She did not seem to be able to hear the sound, and neither did Shinn, stood tall and proud, plain next to the other woman, but all the same there was something about her face that made you want to keep looking at it.

"This is the man I told you about," Shinn said.

"He is of no use. You ought to have killed him."

Laxus looked at Bergmeister, flailing pitifully on the carpet at Shinn's feet with his hands over his ears.

"But I thought…" Shinn started forward.

"The other one is far more interesting."

Those words broke through into Laxus' brain. The other one had to be him. He lurched to his feet, pushing the sound away with all the force of his will.

"Sharmalian, you said…" Shinn's voice was sharp.

"Oh my darling, but it isn't _your_ fault! There are always elements outside our control. We simply need to accept them, and adapt our ideas in their light. It's easy! I do not have the Fairy Tail trophy. There are many things I do not have, but there are just as many ways to achieve our dreams. _This_ is quite a prize, though I don't suppose I can really keep him." She walked towards Laxus as she spoke, staring into his eyes.

Shinn took her arm and pulled her around forcefully. "What about Frida?" she asked, her face set.

Laxus swayed on his feet, the sound still pushing at him, invisible pressure in the air that seemed to want to crush his skull.

"You sister is being very well looked after, you needn't worry! And you will see her soon enough, _when_ you have fulfilled your promise." She turned back to Laxus. "Now, you don't have any idea what you have brought me, do you?"

"A vigilante. I should kill him!" Shinn drew her sword.

"But that would be such a waste! This is Yuri Dreyer's great grandson, Laxus. He is an historic figure really, though perhaps not _so_ important, certainly not enough to be part of my collection." She laughed.

Laxus opened his mouth to shout at her, but nothing came out of it. He seemed to have no power to do anything.

"You cannot do magic in my house," the woman, Sharmalian, informed him softly, as if she could tell what he was thinking.

Laxus managed to scowl at her.

"I _abhor_ magic," the woman said, her words edged with delight. "I do not hold any myself and neither does Shinn, though she _is_ remarkable, don't you agree?" She did not wait for a reply, since she knew there was no way she was going to get one. "Shinn has possession of an interdimensional sword, a magical artefact, I suppose you could call it, but the truly incredible thing is the skill with which she can wield it. That isn't magic, it's experience and judgement. And without that skill, the sword is entirely useless."

It was almost as if she was making him do it. Laxus' magic was gone. There was something happening in that house that nulled it, but he had already found the strength to suppress the sound. He pushed from there to find further strength, and the speed to bound forward, to shove Shinn away, and at the same time, snatch the sword from her hand.

He stood holding that sword for a moment, marvelling at its weight, its peculiar charisma, and then he sliced it through the air in a great arc, reached for Bergmeister and plunged headlong into the strange swirling colour swathe the sword had made.

xxx

"Laxus!" Freed shouted. Laxus was gone, impossibly vanished away into nowhere. Freed looked around him frantically, but everything was just vague, blurred, and there were no people, only the sense that Laxus had been there and now he wasn't. And that it was all Freed's fault.

"Hey Butterfly, what's wrong?"

Freed clawed himself awake, not alone at all but held tight and safe in Hal's arms with the sun shining in through the window and everything lit up sharp. "Nothing," he said without thinking.

"What were you dreaming about?" Hal asked, looking right into Freed's eyes.

The dream was gone, Laxus was gone, but that hideous feeling was still there. It was the same feeling that had been growing and growing day after day to become unbearable. "I don't remember," Freed said. He was still wound up like a spring, but Hal's warmth and the steady movement of Hal's chest helped, his wonderful dark eyes; everything about Hal helped.

"You said, 'Laxus'. You called out his name."

Did I, Freed wondered?

"I know you're in love with him. I'm not an idiot."

Freed smiled. "It's not like that. It's…" He knew what was coming.

"Don't lie to me!"

Hands round his throat. Everything about Hal helped, even this. Immeasurable strength pulling, dragging, pushing. A fist in his face, fast as lightning. Lightning! Pain, falling, flashing lights…

"I'm sorry."

Freed couldn't hear him at first, but he could tell what he was saying. Even if he hadn't spoken, his face said it.

"I got angry. You made me… I'm sorry."

Freed closed his eyes. He hurt. Just for that moment there was pain and nothing else. But then he opened his eyes again and saw Hal's face, and the feeling came back more fierce and frantic even than before, everything all askew, Laxus snatched away in a dream. It had to mean something. "It doesn't matter." He got up carefully and let Hal hold him. "You smell good," he said.

"Are you really all right?"

"I'm fine. I'm not made of glass, Hal. I could…" He couldn't say it though. I'm using him, he thought, the idea like a shard of ice piercing his heart.

"You could what?"

"Nothing. I have to go." He smiled.

"To your guild?" Hal snarled.

"I'll be back soon, I promise." After all, what was a promise worth?

xxx

Freed walked to the guildhall fast at first, but slowed as he got nearer, feet dragging. This had happened before, he suddenly realised, this unwillingness to go the one place where he was supposed to really belong. He had dreamed about Laxus. He had an overwhelming feeling that something had happened to Laxus, but what could that matter and what would that mean to anybody else? And how could he begin talking about it without getting it mixed up in all the other things that he didn't dare say to anyone? They would only think he had gone crazy. Perhaps he _had_ gone crazy.

He stepped into the hall without anyone noticing. There was no sign of Makarov or Mira, the only two people he could imagine talking to, but the room was rowdy with banter making it easy to slip into a corner unseen, to wait.

"I certainly think it's interesting that Mirajane is not here. _Where_ did you say she had gone?"

"I didn't say she'd gone anywhere, Erza," laughed Gray. "I've got no idea where she is."

"Well, I expect I can hold you equally responsible anyway."

"Responsible for what? I didn't do anything!"

"Were you not involved in the building work?"

"Sure, we all helped out, but…"

"Mirajane claimed she would be the overseer, but any of you could have called her out on the standard of workmanship. It's appalling! It will all need to be torn down and done again."

"Now wait a minute lady!" Cana sat up suddenly from the bench where she'd been lounging. "We worked our butts off rebuilding this place while you were having a fine time on some hiking holiday…"

Freed liked Cana, she was the kind of person who got straight to the point and didn't waste any time, but today her voice was like a hammer. All of their voices were as they pounded and echoed, becoming nothing but dull thuds with no meaning.

And time passed inevitably. Freed just sat by himself, motionless, the thought that something had happened to Laxus getting stronger every minute and his sense of shame at doing nothing about it getting stronger too, until the feeling was unbearable. His ribs grated with every breath and his face ached. Sooner or later he was going to have to go home to Hal, but right now the person he really wanted was Laxus. If only Laxus were to walk through the door, stride in smiling to prove that Freed really was a fool once and for all to have sat there all day in such an agony of indecision. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall, barely able to hold himself up.

"Master Makarov!"

Freed was on his feet in an instant. The voice was Bickslow's, out of breath, crashed into the guildhall with Evergreen behind him and a chorus of 'babies'. And Freed knew without needing to think about it that this meant he wasn't any kind of fool at all.

"Master isn't here," said Erza. "What's wrong? What's happened?"

Freed was frozen to the spot, not wanting to hear, but unable to stop himself listening.

"Laxus," Bickslow said, recovering his breath in gasps. "He got taken. He's gone."

And Freed saw it again, his dream; Laxus slipping away into nowhere. He stepped forward. How could a dream really be true? It wasn't possible.

"Taken by who?" asked Gray. "I can't imagine anyone could just _take_ Laxus anywhere he didn't want to go!"

"A woman called Shinn," Bickslow said, shaking his head. "And you don't understand. She wanted the fence, she took _him_. But Laxus tried to stop her and he…"

"She has a sword," Ever said. "She sliced open the _air_, and went through it, to some _other_ place. By the time we got there they were all gone. We searched for them but there was nothing…"

"Interdimensional transport," Erza said. 'Or teleportation." She frowned. "It doesn't really matter which, but Laxus is _some_where. Cana can probably locate him. Cana?"

Evergreen found Freed in the crowd of everyone, took his arm, looked up at him apologetically, wearily, and then frowned. "Hey," she said, reaching up to lift his hair out of his eye, "who punched you in the face?"

Freed pulled away angrily. "No-one," he said. He had no idea what his face looked like, and what did it matter anyway? His head ached and his ribs were probably broken, but all that was nothing compared to the hideous feeling of culpability that was still growing minute by minute into an unstoppable monster grinding at his soul. If Cana was going to tell him where Laxus was, then he could at least begin to fight it.

xxx

"He isn't anywhere," Cana said, throwing the cards down in disgust. "I can't think of any other way to try."

"He has to be somewhere," said Bickslow, desperately.

They had all been watching for hours now as Cana tried different sequences and patterns of cards.

"Laxus is not in this world," Cana said hopelessly. "That's what it said from the beginning." She slumped back in her chair. "I need a drink," she said.

"You mean he's dead, don't you?" asked Ever. "It didn't seem like he died! It wasn't like that! He went somewhere, that's all."

"Laxus is not dead," Freed said. He got up. "If Cana can't find him there are others who might be able to."

"We should head out to Blue Pegasus," said Bickslow, looking at Ever and Freed.

They had discussed this already, between Cana's bouts of divination. It was almost morning. Hibiki at Blue Pegasus could find anything anywhere with archive magic.

"It would be foolish to set off without any rest," said Erza sternly. "A few hours' sleep at the very least..."

"Forget that," said Ever. "I couldn't sleep now anyway."

"We leave in an hour," said Freed with a glare for Erza, and anyone else who might have been thinking about arguing with him. "Be ready." He walked out of the guildhall into the end of the night.

"Hey, Freed," Bickslow called. "Wait up!"

"Wait up, wait up!" Bickslow's flying dolls echoed.

Freed wheeled round unwillingly and Bickslow just stood there, looking at him, saying nothing. "What do you want Bickslow?"

"You're not a very good liar," Bickslow said.

Freed was cold already. He went colder.

Bickslow reached out and touched Freed's hair, smoothing it away from his eye, like Ever had done, studying his face. "That looks pretty bad, but this…" He suddenly stepped in and pushed Freed in the chest, where Hal had kicked him.

Freed gasped in pain and dropped to his knees.

"Why d'you let him do that to you?"

"I don't know what you're…"

"Yes you do! You asked me not to tell anyone about him, remember? Well I haven't, so far, but I will if you don't… Who is he? He said he was stronger than you, I heard him say it, but that's just pure bull, hardly anyone's stronger than you. I know I'm not."

Freed got up slowly and turned away. "Leave me alone Bickslow."

"I would man, I totally would." Bickslow put his hand on Freed's shoulder. "But Laxus is _gone_. Get it? We gotta be a team and get him back. Needs all of us."

"I said we would be leaving in an hour. I'll be back by then." Freed shrugged Bickslow's hand away.

"I'll come with you."

"_No!_" Freed stared impassively at Bickslow, trying to make his face look as if he was in control and failing hopelessly.

"All right," Bickslow said. "Have it your way, but be _careful_. I'm not joking."

xxx

"Butterfly! You were gone so long, I thought something had happened to you."

"I'm sorry." Freed had hoped Hal would be asleep, but of course he wasn't. He was sitting on the doorstep in that strange light of an up-all-night sunrise, waiting.

"It's all right. You're here now." Hal enveloped him in his warm arms, pulling him down, making him feel sick. "What's wrong? You're shaking."

"I haven't got long. I have to go back."

Hal laughed. "No you don't. You have to stay. With me!"

"I have to go." Freed snatched himself away and stood up.

"Why?" Hal stood up too, all angry.

And Freed quailed in fear, but it wasn't fear of Hal. Bickslow was right. Freed was only afraid for himself, of what he was going to have to do, who he was going to have to _be_. "You can't make me do what you want all the time."

"You won't even answer my question, so it must be because of Laxus."

"Laxus is in trouble. I have to help him."

"Because you're in love with him."

"You can't… It's not…" Freed couldn't find the words. His head was spinning.

"You love him and you don't love me," Hal said. "You can't even tell me the truth about it. I've got some important news, but you don't even care, do you?"

"I do care, Hal, but I…"

"Lies and excuses; that's all you have. Well listen to this! Natsu Dragneel is coming back, I can tell. I'm going to fight him and you have to be here to see it, so you're not going anywhere." Hal reached out to grab Freed and hold him still, but Freed danced back faster, out of reach, and drew his sword.

"I'm not like you," Freed said. "I don't know how I feel, not for certain. My feelings have never been particularly important to anyone before, but I'm _trying_ to know them. I'm _not _lying, not about this. I need time, that's all."

"There _is_ no time. I told you, he's coming!"

The ground began to shake. Hal's magic was earth shattering, formidable, but it was nothing as well.

Freed flung his hair back away from his right eye and shivered as the darkness encompassed his heart. "Dark ecriture," he said quietly. He looked right at Hal and smiled. "Pain."

He felt an honest stab of pity as Hal fell, but he could not hold on to it, not when his soul had been so ruthlessly emptied of all humanity. And as he flew off back to the guild he looked down at his lover writhing in agony below him and felt nothing at all.

xxx

It did not get properly dark. The light always stayed the same, making it impossible to tell how much time had passed.

The fence had given up talking. At first he had alternated friendly chit-chat with hopeless self-pity until Laxus thought he might go insane listening to it, but then he had suddenly shut his trap and faded into the landscape, instantly forgettable.

There was nothing to eat and they had found sleeping impossible, so all Laxus could do was continue to move forward a pace at a time, slashing the air with Shinn's sword and looking through holes into other lands.

He wondered how long he would be able to carry on. It was not so much the physical effort, the lack of sleep or the nagging of hunger in his guts, it was the places themselves. Each time he slashed, the slice of place he glimpsed was different, and not different the way Magnolia is different from the countryside, but more like the way the depths of the ocean are different from the top of the highest mountain. Each place stranger than the one before it and most smelling entirely unlike anything Laxus had ever thought of as _real_.

"These are different _worlds_," he had said to Bergmeister, before the fence gave up responding to him.

"Why wouldn't they be?" the fence had replied tartly. "There _are_ other worlds. We're in one now. And that woman said we would never find our way anywhere without skill. I don't know what you were thinking."

"They were going to kill you," Laxus said.

Bergmeister had laughed. "Oh, and I suppose you think we're both going to stay alive here, with nothing to eat or drink?"

Laxus didn't think about that. He was trained not to. He did not think about what Sharmalian had said either for he knew it was useless to do so. He concentrated on observing the worlds as he opened them and nothing else; that was difficult enough.

And it became more difficult as time seemed not to pass and nothing changed at all. All the slashes closed again minutes after they had been made, so there was nothing to show for all that work but the weariness he felt, and the blessed distance he had created between himself and the fence as he inched along.

He looked at the sword and suddenly thought of Freed. Freed would be better at this than him! He thought of Freed and Fairy Tail, home, and he wielded the sword somehow differently, slashing the air and seeing green though it; for the first time a place like the world he knew. And a smell he could not help but recognise…

"Bergmeister! Get here! Now!"

The fence looked up in alarm. Laxus was half through the opening and he wasn't about to wait.

"Did you have to cook _all_ the fishies?" A voice he knew too.

"Would I do that to you?"

Half in one world and half in another. The new world had food in it; roasting fish. Laxus held out his hand for Bergmeister to catch hold of and then threw them both through, almost landing in the fire.

"Laxus!" cried Lucy, jumping up in amazement.

"Where did you come from?" asked Natsu. "And who's the guy in the purple face?"

Laxus rolled on the ground and laughed, suddenly overwhelmed by all the real smells in the real world. "Have you any fish to spare?" he asked. "I'm starving!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Butterfly Part Six**

"Where are we?" Laxus hadn't thought to ask up till now. He hadn't cared; he'd been too busy _answering_ questions, and eating the most delicious fish in the entire world. _When_ are we? He wondered that too, but didn't know how to ask. How much time had been lost in that other place?

"Well, we're not really sure about that, are we Lucy?" Natsu said, scratching the back of his head and laughing sheepishly.

"Why are you blaming me?" Lucy snapped.

"Oh, don't start arguing again!" said Happy. "I've just had enough yummy fishies to send me off to sleep but it won't work if you're shouting. Please don't!"

Laxus didn't want them to argue either. It was evening; a beautiful, mild night in a beautiful, mild world, a perfect world it seemed at that moment, filled with fresh air and hope. And there was a fire too. The fence was already curled up beside it, apparently asleep. It seemed strange for Natsu to be lost. Natsu generally strode and blundered around the world without even needing to look where he was going, guided by his sense of smell and his feelings, always finding his way without effort. But none of that mattered in a way that couldn't wait for tomorrow.

xxx

"Laxus is in Fiore," Hibiki said. His smile stretched too far somehow, as if he were a hungry wolf, but that was probably wrong; not real.

It was quiet in the Blue Pegasus guildhall and there were no echoes. Every sound seemed to originate right by your ear, soft and direct, but also meaningless. Freed shook his head to try to make his brain work. The others had slept in the train, but Freed hadn't been able to. Laxus was in Fiore?

"Where in Fiore?" Ever demanded.

Hibiki smiled at her indulgently.

Freed found he was grinding his teeth, and the walls were changing colour. His jaw was clenched so tight it hurt, but then most of the rest of him hurt too, when he thought about it. It was better not to think at all, except…

"Not far from Magnolia," Hibiki said. "Look, here." He pointed at some shapes on the fantastic display of coloured light in front of them. "Archive senses magic strength, and it understands place and time too. You can find wizards, and if you know them, you can identify them from the signature patterns of their magic. This is Laxus."

Freed found it hard to pin the thoughts into his head. Hibiki was leaning on Ever, explaining everything to her as if she were the only one there, breathing in her ear. Laxus wasn't far from Magnolia…

"Get off me!" Ever snapped.

Bickslow laughed. "So those other shapes are wizards too," he said. "Who are they?"

"Lucy, Natsu and Happy. I don't know who the little one is…"

"Natsu?" Freed got up. And it began to rain. Rain indoors? No, it was more like paint pouring down the walls, getting darker and darker until everything was gone.

xxx

Laxus dreamed he was flying through other worlds; out of one and into another with no end in sight, not sure if he was running towards or away from something. He woke gasping for breath and was immediately aware of that sword lying in the grass beside him, Shinn's sword, emitting its colourless vapour like malice into the world. He reached out to touch it and shivered.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Lucy yelled.

Laxus leapt up to see Lucy kick Bergmeister in the chest, sending him rolling and flailing into a whimpering heap.

"Is this guy your friend Laxus?" she asked. "I don't think I like him very much. He was trying to take my keys!"

"That's a lie!" Bergmeister protested. "What would I want with gate keys? I'm not a celestial wizard."

"How do you know I _have_ gate keys if you weren't trying to steal them?" Lucy demanded.

"He's not my friend," Laxus said heavily. He walked over to the fence and hauled him to his feet. "If you didn't want Lucy's keys what did you want?"

The fence didn't even pretend not to be scared, he quaked. "What do you think I wanted? Money of course! It's been very nice knowing you, but I've had enough now. I aim to return to civilisation as soon as possible. These people don't seem to be able to navigate their way from A to B from what they were saying last night. I don't fancy going round and round in circles for the rest of my life, thank you very much. But I need jewel if I am to prosper abroad. How about you donate some to a good cause? Then I will go away and leave you alone. I promise."

"You're not going anywhere," said Laxus through gritted teeth.

Natsu laughed. "We don't have any jewel!" he said happily.

"I don't see why you're so cheerful about it, since it's all your fault!" said Lucy.

"My fault? How is it my fault? You're the one who spent it, aren't you?"

"I spent it on food! I wouldn't have had to if you weren't always hungry, and if you didn't keep sending us off in the wrong direction. If you had listened to me in the first place we'd be home by now!"

Natsu and Lucy were glaring at each other.

"You've got a flying cat for heaven's sake!" the fence was exasperated. "Surely he can see the right way to go if he flies high enough?"

"And I thought you had a spirit with a compass, or something…" Laxus said slowly. Bergmeister was right, even if that did seem improbable.

Natsu turned his glare away and followed it out of sight, but Lucy gave hers up and sank to the ground with Happy in her lap.

"I don't know what's going on Laxus," she said, shaking her head. "It's been weeks and weeks, even months maybe. We went all that way and did our job, but ever since then we've been lost. It's as if someone or something is trying to keep us away from Fairy Tail. Honestly! We always seem to end up back where we started."

"I _do_ fly up into the air," Happy said dejectedly. "And I can see everything fine when I'm there, but then on the way down again, I don't know, it just all goes hazy and I can't remember. I think I must be getting old."

Laxus stood up tall and breathed deep. The air was wonderful and somehow familiar, like home. He was almost sure he could smell the guildhall itself. Almost.

"Which way would you go?" he asked the fence.

"It doesn't matter," Bergmeister said. "Set off in a straight line, you'll come to somewhere. And somewhere will lead to somewhere else. We're not in a desert."

Laxus nodded and he turned all about until he felt something tug at his heart. "I'm going this way," he said.

xxx

And suddenly there was too much light, like a flash of lightning. Freed slammed his eyes closed again. Laxus was in Fiore, with Natsu.

"Hey," Ever said. "Wake up already. I'm bored!"

Freed opened his eyes a crack so he could see her. She didn't look bored, she looked worried. Natsu was coming back to Fairy Tail. He might be there already…

"What time is it?" Freed asked.

"Late," said Ever. "Are you all right?"

Freed wondered what the answer might be to that question and didn't even attempt to reply. He had no idea where he was or how he had got there, but it was comfortable enough. His chest had been expertly bandaged and it no longer hurt to breathe.

"Who beat you up Freed?" Ever asked softly.

"No-one! I'm not…" Freed sat up, frowning. He was in a room full of empty beds. He guessed it was an infirmary, though it wasn't much like the one at Fairy Tail for it was garlanded with extravagant décor and bright sunlight as well.

"Fine, whatever," Evergreen said with a huge sigh. She stood up and threw a pile of Freed's clothes at him. "Get dressed. I want to go home." And she turned to leave.

"Where's Bickslow?"

Ever whirled back round. "He left already, last night. He said I should go with him and leave you here on your own." She narrowed her eyes behind her glasses. "Seemed like he was mad at you, but he wouldn't say why. Now it looks like I'm mad at you too."

"I'm sorry Ever. I…" Freed looked up at her, stood with her hands on her hips, such a formidable presence if you cared to notice. Hal wanted to fight Natsu; that was all he wanted. Natsu would defeat him and then what? Freed wasn't even sure he wanted to know.

"We're your friends," Ever said. "You could always try talking to us."

xxx

Laxus stopped to wait for Lucy to catch up. He was beginning to recognise his surroundings now, the hills to the west of Magnolia, a breath-taking landscape.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Natsu was stood beside him, frowning.

Laxus laughed. "Sure I'm sure," he said. "Magnolia's just over that hill. What's up?" He looked back to Lucy walking along carelessly through a flowery meadow with Happy, and the fence, even further back, just a plum-coloured dot on the horizon.

But Natsu looked angry. They'd been walking for hours now together, and Laxus suddenly realised that Natsu had barely spoken in all that time.

"I don't see how it can be this easy." Natsu burst out.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if it was this easy to get home, how come we couldn't do it without you helping?"

"I don't know. I suppose…" Laxus was looking ahead, into the sky where something he'd taken to be a bird was growing larger, heading in their direction. "Hey, is that…?" He set off running towards it, the shape that was obviously a person flying through the sky like no-one else would ever fly.

"Bickslow!" Laxus yelled as the familiar figure flew lower and then bounded to the ground encircled by his strange totem dolls.

"Hey Laxus!" Bickslow called. "Where you been man?"

"Laxus, Laxus!" chorused Bickslow's 'babies'.

It was too good to see a real friend. Laxus flung the sword aside and caught the other man up in an enthusiastic embrace. "You won't believe me when I tell you," he said. "Where's everyone else?"

"Oh, back at Fairy Tail by now I expect. I was scouting ahead. Hey, is that her sword? How d'you get it?" Bickslow was staring down at Shinn's sword in awe.

Laxus picked it up and looked at it too. "Yeah," he said. "Long story."

It was always strange to look at Bickslow, since you could never see his eyes when you did, but that wasn't to say he didn't get things. Laxus didn't feel like talking. Bickslow put a hand on his arm and then turned away. "Whaddaya know! Natsu! Long time no see!"

xxx

The journey went quicker with Bickslow along, chatting idly with Lucy and baiting Bergmeister. Natsu seemed to have got over his funk and argued cheerfully with Happy about what they would eat when they arrived. At the top of the hill they could see Magnolia below them, like a toy town filled with tiny people, and soon enough they found themselves in the wood behind the guildhall, spread out among the trees.

Laxus was tired, but it was in a good way; he was almost home, and despite all that had happened he felt the right way up again. The guildhall was rebuilt and the architect of its destruction had let him go without a fight. If Shinn came looking for her sword, well, she had no magic. There was no way she would be able to get it back. A wave of exhaustion swept through him, almost as if the ground was gently shaking, a strange feeling, reminiscent of…

And then the ground really shook.

"What was that!" Lucy shouted, and she squealed as another tremor came, more violent still, knocking everyone off their feet while the trees creaked and moaned all around.

Laxus took hold of Bickslow's arm. "It's Freed's earth wizard," he muttered urgently.

"The guy Freed's been seeing? He's an earth wizard? Wait a minute…"

Laxus didn't know what Bickslow was talking about, and he was given no time to think about it, for just as he pulled himself up he was flung over once more and the earth wizard erupted from the ground in front of them.

"Natsu Dragneel!" the man said, in a voice that sounded like the rumbling of the earth itself. "I have come a long way and I have waited a long time to fight you."

"I've heard about you!" Natsu said, and he laughed. "I'll fight you any time you want, but I'd like to know who you are first."

"My name is Halyan Soong," the earth wizard replied, and as he did he pushed up the earth and rock under Natsu shooting him into the air like a rocket, sending uprooted trees with him.

There was no standing; the ground was no longer the ground and rocks and great splinters of tree branches rained down on everyone. Natsu retaliated in a reflex with a roar of flame that engulfed the earth wizard entirely but seemed to damage him not at all.

"You cannot burn me!" the earth wizard cried.

But everything around seemed to be on fire, the ripped up branches, the trees still standing. Everyone raced in different directions to escape the flames and their fierce heat.

"Get out of the wood, you idiots!" Laxus bellowed. He didn't wait to work out whether the fighting wizards heard or cared, he gathered up all the power he could find instead and turned it into lightning, pushing Natsu as far and as fast as was possible in the direction of open space. And the earth wizard went almost as fast after him.

"Ow!" said Lucy.

"Are you all right?" Laxus pulled her to her feet.

"Well I suppose I'll have to be," she said. "We need to put this fire out." She fumbled for her keys. "Open gate of the ram, Aries!"

And suddenly the wood was full of pink wool, stuffed in all the space and smothering the trees. Laxus' eyes burned and he could hardly see, but there was only smoke, the flames were all gone. He coughed violently. They had to get out of there, but he had lost all sense of direction and all of his friends as well.

"Thanks Aries, you can go back now," he heard Lucy say, somewhere to his left.

"What's going on?" someone croaked.

Laxus lifted his streaming eyes to catch a blurry glimpse of plum-coloured coat. He grabbed and held on. "The earth wizard," he gasped. "Who is he?"

"Halyan Soong?" Bergmeister gave up talking for coughing for a moment. "I told you, I don't know him! I don't know anything about him!"

"You're lying!"

"I don't think he is," Bickslow appeared out of the smoke with his visor in one hand, wiping his face, "not this time. Where's Lucy?"

"I'm here," Lucy said. "Come on. We need to get to Natsu, wherever he is."

Happy got there first. He flew straight up out of the canopy of the wood while the others had to struggle round the wool-wrapped trees, but it wasn't difficult to find the place where Natsu and the earth wizard had ended up. The rumbling of underground activity and the roaring of flames led them there, and the smells of burning and of freshly turned earth, to the wide open space next to the guildhall. Almost everyone from Fairy Tail was gathered there too, to watch, the air filled with their chattering excitement as the earth shook and flames flew all around.

"Laxus!" said Makarov, taking his grandson's hands and looking into his eyes with a frown. "It's good to see you in one piece, but I'm afraid the tales of your adventures are going to have to wait a while." He peered keenly into the fight before them; the young earth wizard was flinging huge rocks straight out of the ground at Natsu. "This must be the wizard you told me about, the one who undermined my guildhall and collapsed it into ruins. The one you said wanted to challenge Natsu." The old man smiled. "He seems very tenacious, but it disturbs me to think he has been around all this time somewhere in Magnolia, _waiting_…"

Laxus suddenly remembered something. "Bicks, what was it you said before, about Freed?"

Bickslow didn't answer. He was staring at the earth wizard with his mouth open. Laxus looked too, at that young man, so determined, so deluded.

"You cannot defeat me," the earth wizard proclaimed, stood seemingly solid as a mountain with his eyes blazing. "I am stronger than you!"

"Freed's had some guy staying with him. They've been…" Bickslow kept his eyes on the young wizard and he talked slow. "He asked me not to tell anyone, that's why…" he hesitated. "I think it's him."

"But how could…? Where _is_ Freed?" Laxus scanned the crowd, shading his eyes from the sun.

"He isn't here," said Makarov. "Or if he is, I haven't seen him. That's a serious accusation to make though Bickslow. And we don't know if it is true or not. There will be plenty of time to ask questions later, but for now, I, for one, am thoroughly enjoying this battle. It won't last much longer, you know. Natsu is barely using a tenth of his true power. Hey Natsu!" the old man shouted across the battlefield. "Finish him!"

Natsu certainly heard. He whirled round grinning and called out his iron fist attack, sending the other wizard flying head over heels in a blast of brilliant flame, into a crumpled pile, still, for a moment at least.

xxx

"What's all that noise?" Ever asked. She hadn't bothered talking much on the journey home, since Freed hadn't responded to anything she said.

He didn't respond now, but he knew what it was and he quickened his step, past the guildhall and beyond, Ever could barely keep up with him.

And there was Hal, just as expected, dragging himself to his feet to stand on the broken ground, as perfect and wonderful as ever. Freed couldn't see Hal's face, but he could see Natsu, hunched over, recovering his breath after his last attack, grinning. And further back still was Laxus, looking. Laxus returned, after all they had been through to find him. Freed stared at Laxus for a moment, and it was like looking at a perfect stranger.

Hal stood firm and strong, and he slowly raised one arm above his head as the ground under everyone began to shake. "SONG OF EARTH!" he called out, his voice booming loud, like a gong.

Freed was thrown to the ground, as were most of the spectators as the song began, rolling through the ground, louder and louder, shaking everyone's bones, shaking their hearts and souls too. Freed could not hold his thoughts together as he watched the vibrations home in on Hal, coursing up through his body, drawing strange designs on his skin as they went, thick, dark lines.

Natsu struggled to stay on his feet, teetering and tottering, too confused to summon magic and then Hal seemed to open his mouth and let the song flow from him, right at Natsu, wave after wave of it. Everyone could feel it, getting more and more intense. Freed began to wonder, eyes squeezed shut, if his head would fall apart and if he cared whether it did until the shaking began to subside, little by little getting less awful until it was only a sickening hum.

"Hal!" Freed's voice escaped him as he lurched up and Hal turned at the sound, smiling.

"Butterfly!" he said, as he fell.

It was an end-of-life spell. There was no mistaking it; the kind that uses all of your life force to destroy another. By the time Freed got to him his eyes were closed and the lines on his skin were fading away, taking his life with them.

"I did it Butterfly," Hal said, his voice a dying whisper. "I defeated Natsu Dragneel!"

"FREED JUSTINE!"

The voice jerked him awake, Master Makarov's voice calling his name. Had he been sleeping? He looked around, as the colour flooded back into the world, at all of the wizards of Fairy Tail, jostling and crowding round Natsu where he had fallen, shouting in dismay. Was Natsu dead? Had Hal killed him? Freed tugged at Hal's lifeless hand.

And a hand took hold of _him_, a huge, titan hand, big enough to envelop his whole body in a relentless grip and take him prisoner. And it was a relief to be held like that, to finally relinquish all power and control.

Freed felt a tiny pulse move in Hal's thumb and his heart soared as he was wrenched away.

"He's alive! Does anyone know where Wendy is?"

"I can find her, but it might take ages to get her here. Shouldn't we fetch Porlyusica?"

The voices rained through Freed's thoughts, making them impossible, but what did it matter? He looked into his master's stone-like eyes. "Is Natsu all right?" he asked.

"Natsu is very far from all right, and your friend Hal is just as far. We need to talk, my boy."


	7. Chapter 7

**Butterfly Part Seven**

"What has he done?" Makarov demanded. "And how can it be undone?"

Freed felt the massive hand close tighter around him until he had to fight to breathe. "I don't know," he said.

"Look at me and say that again."

"I don't know what he did." Freed only looked for as long as it took him to say it. The fire in the old man's eyes hurt too much to look at.

But the hand relaxed its grip and he found himself deposited on the ruptured earth, collapsed onto his knees, dazed and shaking, for a moment anyway, until another hand took hold of him and pulled him up.

"Who _are _you?" Laxus roared. He held Freed by his collar and in his other hand gripped a strange sword, ready to strike. "Who are you now Freed? I thought I knew, but it seems I was mistaken."

"I'm still… I'm not…"

The sword glinted in the sun and some of the people flitting between fallen wizards and general wreckage paused to stare in astonishment.

"Laxus, leave it!" Makarov said sternly. "We don't know anything yet, not for sure."

"_I_ know plenty," Laxus said.

Freed dared to look at his face, so angry, so filled with hate. It's only what I expected, he told himself. It's what I deserve.

"All right," Makarov said to Laxus. "I daresay you do, but there is much to be done here, much to organise. Go help carry those boys to the infirmary. This one is mine, for the time being." He put a hand on Freed's arm, claiming him.

Laxus slowly let go and just stood, staring fiercely right into Freed's eyes. "For the time being," he said.

xxx

"Give me your sword."

"Why?" Freed's hand flew instinctively to its hilt.

They had come inside the guildhall, into Makarov's rooms, and Freed was suddenly cold. He shivered.

"Because I am your guild master, and I told you to. I believed you, when you said you didn't know what that young man had done to Natsu. You have never been a very good liar. But then, I might be wrong. Who's to say you haven't learned how to lie? I believe it is perfectly possible for anyone to learn anything if they put their mind to it."

Freed felt as if the air was all gone from the room, but it was just as well. There was nowhere to go any more; nothing could fix what he had done. He unbuckled his belt and handed the whole thing to his master without looking at him.

"Sit down."

"I'd rather stand."

"Do you know what I can smell, now we're inside?" Makarov asked.

Freed shook his head, bewildered.

"One of Ichya's parfums." The old man nodded, as if to confirm his idea now he had said it aloud. "I can't tell what it's for of course, but still, I do wonder what will happen when I take it away." He waved his hand and the atmosphere in the room seemed to turn around, like a dial, and a subtle fragrance that Freed hadn't even noticed before was suddenly gone.

What magic was there could do that? Surely it wasn't possible? And all the pain that Freed had woken that morning mysteriously without came flooding back, tenfold, it seemed, making him cry out and fall into a chair without having chosen to do so.

"Tell me what happened. Start from the beginning."

"I don't know…"

"Stop pretending to be helpless; you're not!" Makarov sounded angry for the first time. "When did you first meet this earth wizard? How long have you known him?"

Freed looked up in surprise. "I met him when he came into the guildhall the night we were attacked. Laxus was there. I thought…"

"You didn't know him before that?"

"No! Do you think I knew about the attack? That I was part of it? I would never…"

"I don't know what to think Freed."

"I met him that night." Freed's head was spinning. "He took out my shield and held me hostage and then Laxus…"

"Laxus says you got in the way of his attack; you let your friend go…"

"He wasn't my friend. Not then!"

"So why did you help him?"

Freed drew himself up straight, using all of his muscles to try to stop the bones of his broken ribcage from destroying him. It didn't work. "Hal wasn't part of the thieves' guild, not really. He didn't want to attack Fairy Tail at all. He just wanted to fight Natsu. And he was already done, defeated. Laxus didn't need to launch another attack; he could have killed him…" Freed ran out of steam and stopped talking, glanced up through his hair at the old man sat looking at him from under an intense frown.

Makarov got up slowly and went to the window, fetched a bottle that was sat there and two glasses. "Here," he said, handing over a glass with a small amount of an amber liquid in it. "Have a drink."

"I don't…"

"I'm not asking." The old man settled back in his chair with his own glass. "It makes an interesting story and I suppose it sounds reasonable, but the next part certainly doesn't."

That amber liquid turned out to be warm and wild, yet somehow comforting, whirling his thoughts around in a way that made them seem to matter less. How could Master Makarov know so much? Freed didn't want to remember any of the rest of it. "Can I see him?" he asked.

"Later. You're supposed to be talking now. You're supposed to be telling me all about how you took this dangerous wizard into your home and kept him a secret." Makarov's tone became darker with every word he spoke until it was truly terrifying.

"He isn't dangerous," Freed protested. "You don't know him. He's…"

"Nine people died Freed. Nine. You saw them with your own eyes! And how long had they been dead, tell me that?"

Less than a day. Freed didn't say it; he couldn't, and anyway, the old man already knew. Freed's eyes filled with tears.

"I blame myself," Makarov went on. "If I had only worked harder to get the truth out of that cursed fence…" He got up once more and put a hand on Freed's shoulder. "What has he done to Natsu?" he asked gently.

"I don't know."

"You must know something. What did he say?"

Freed felt the hand on his shoulder begin to grip tight. He tried to gather himself together. "He said he wanted to fight Natsu. It was the only thing he wanted. He said Natsu was the strongest wizard in Fiore and I told him he was wrong, but he wouldn't listen. He was convinced he could defeat him, but I…"

"What?"

"It was a joke!" Freed looked up at his master out of beseeching eyes washed with tears, exhausted eyes. "He was no match for Laxus. He couldn't even hurt _me_, not if I didn't let him… Master, is he going to die?"

Makarov sighed. "We have used all the time we had for talking. I still believe you're telling the truth, but sometimes to think the best of people is a weakness, and besides, any truth _you_ could tell will only make a little difference. Come on. Porlyusica should be here by now."

Freed staggered to his feet. "Can I see Hal? You said…"

Master Makarov turned and smiled sadly. "You might be a poor liar Freed, but I am a very good one. I have no intention of letting you see that boy and I never did. You have betrayed your guild which is unforgiveable and I am going to lock you up and forget about you for a while at least so that I can get on with more important things."

xxx

"Well, what is it? Will he recover?" Makarov asked, bursting into the infirmary and breaking the reverent silence.

"I don't know who you think I am Makarov," Porlyusica said in her slow, creaking voice. "Perhaps you have mistaken me for someone else. I am not a miracle worker. Have some patience!"

"I have used up all of my patience I'm afraid," Makarov said grimly.

Laxus looked at him more carefully. Had the old geezer used up his patience talking to Freed?

"You'll have to find some more then," Porlyusica said. "I have no answers for you. Both of these boys have superficial injuries, but nothing that explains this trance state they are in."

"A trance state? What do you mean by that?"

There were plenty of people in the infirmary with Porlyusica, too many to fit really, and everyone had spoken at once to start with, until the story was told. Since then they had all just waited, barely daring to breathe.

Porlyusica sighed. "This child, it seems," she laid her hand on the earth wizard's head, gently stroking his hair, "managed to cast some kind of end-of-life spell on the other one, your Natsu."

He's not a child! Laxus wanted to say it out loud.

"From what the bystanders have told me, the spell was entirely successful. You should know better than I, since you were there, enjoying the battle if I know you at all. It ought to have killed them both, but something prevented it. That's what I believe anyway."

"You mean something shielded them?"

"I don't know," Porlyusica snapped. "I've said so already."

"And will they wake?"

"For all I know, they will be back to normal five minutes from now. Or they might never recover, or one of them might. There is nothing to do but wait and hope."

Makarov began to say something else, but the old woman stopped him.

"I will continue to try to find out more, but I can't do it with all these people hanging around watching me. Be off with you! Shoo!" She waved her arms and the Fairy Tail wizards began to shuffle apologetically away.

"Can't Wendy help?" Makarov asked. "Did anyone manage to find her?"

"Cana found her." Erza was stood leaning on the wall next to Natsu's bed where Lucy sat holding his lifeless hand. Everyone else had gone. "And Happy went to fetch her, but she's a way off. They won't be back any time soon."

Laxus had stood staring down at the earth wizard for all of that time, somehow caught, unable to look away. He was not a child but he _looked_ like one; an innocent agent of all that destruction.

"I need to see Freed." Laxus tore his attention away. "Where is he?"

"In a cell, downstairs," Makarov said quietly, but not quietly enough to avoid arousing Erza's interest.

"Locked up? Give me the key."

"Why is Freed locked up? What's going on?" Erza asked sharply.

Lucy looked up too, blinking away tears, bewildered.

"That's not a good idea Laxus," Makarov warned, ignoring Erza entirely.

"What do you take me for?" Laxus felt as tired as he ever had in his life before. So much had happened in just a few days. "I won't hurt him, much as I'd like to. But I need to find some things out, for my own sanity if nothing else."

xxx

Freed was lying on the floor, on his back, and he did not move when Laxus unlocked the cell door and walked in, but he knew he was there. "Is Natsu dead?" he asked, staring at the ceiling, not looking at Laxus at all.

"No. Or at least, not yet. Do you care about Natsu now?"

"Of course I do! I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

Laxus looked down at the pitiful form of his friend, his _former_ friend, lying dishevelled and dirty on the stone floor. What am I doing here, he wondered? He was supposed to be murderously angry, but that feeling seemed to have slipped away somehow.

"Hal was so sure he could defeat Natsu," Freed said. "I never believed him, honestly. I thought he would be beaten and then he would leave…" He laughed weakly and covered his face with his hands, heavy magic restraints sliding down delicate wrists.

Laxus knelt down on the floor beside him. "The word 'honest' doesn't mean much coming from you," he said. "Why d'you lie to me Freed? I thought…"

"I didn't lie, not really. I just…" Freed uncovered his face for a moment and looked at Laxus out of bloodshot eyes. "I'd do anything for you Laxus," he said. "But you never wanted me. He did."

"You're in love with him." Laxus felt uncomfortable saying it.

"Yes. Haven't you ever been in love?"

Laxus smiled grimly and shook his head. "I'm not made that way," he said, and he wondered if it were entirely true as he heaved himself up.

"Laxus, if he dies, will you come and tell me? I don't want to be alive if he isn't. You can kill me if you like."

And Laxus turned without thinking, pulled Freed up and slammed him against the wall. "What has happened to you?" he snarled. "You used to be worth something, that's all I know. Get it back, before it's too late."

xxx

Freed lay in a crumpled pile and listened to Laxus' footsteps fade away.

"So you fell for our little Hal, did you? Can't say I'm too surprised; he's a pretty boy."

Freed gasped in shock, but he didn't move, he couldn't. Bergmeister the fence was in the next cell and he had been listening the whole time.

"That boy has certainly turned out to be quite the big fish! Who would have thought it? He and I come from the same village, you know…"

Freed felt something take him over that made him forget pain. He sat up. "What did you say?"

"Halyan Soong and I come from the same village."

"You said you didn't know him!"

"Well I don't. He's at least thirty years younger than me and I left that village longer ago than I care to remember, couldn't get out of there fast enough if you know what I mean. He came looking for me, I don't know, three months ago, with a mouthful of rubbish about finding his destiny, or something like that…"

"What destiny?"

The fence laughed nastily. "I have no idea! A load of nonsense I couldn't be bothered listening to."

"And you didn't think to tell us about this before?"

"Economy with the truth is my policy. Seems to be yours too, from what I can gather, though you could do with more practice if you don't mind me saying."

"Where is this village? What is it called?"

"I'm not going to tell _you_ that! Do you think I'm an idiot? I'm saving that one for your Master Makarov. That one's my ticket out of here!"

Freed thought furiously. "I can get you out of here," he said.

The fence guffawed. "How exactly? You can't even do magic with those fancy manacles on."

"No, but you can. Listen." They hadn't bothered to put magic restraints on Bergmeister. "You know they'll never really let you go. You're a rune mage, right?"

"I haven't practised in a long while. I can't remember the last time I…" But Bergmeister's eyes glittered with the idea anyway.

"I can tell you the runes to make, if you can make them."

xxx

It took hours.

The fence was slow and stupid, seemingly unable to follow simple instructions until Freed thought he would scream in frustration. But at least that means I'm alive, he thought. He was alive with ideas. Going to the place Hal had come from, finding who he was and what his mysterious 'destiny' might be. Freed was as fired up as Natsu himself to have a chance, maybe, to fix things.

"I don't believe you know any more about this than I do," Bergmeister said crossly. "It isn't going to work."

Freed sighed. "It will if you make them properly. You're not even trying!"

"Even if we can manage this, and I say we can't, we still need to get out of your blessed guildhall. How do you propose we do that?"

"It will work," Freed said. "It's late enough now." He had no idea what the time was but they'd been brought food hours ago and there were no sounds coming from upstairs any more. "The shape has to be exact, I told you that before! And smaller. That one won't fit."

The fence tutted and made a sequence of runes in the air before him, then instructed them to dance around the magic restraints on Freed's wrists, turning in their beautiful purple shimmer. They were right this time, they had to be! The locks gave a tiny musical click in harmony and the manacles fell open and disappeared.

Freed collapsed in relief for a moment; it had taken so long! But it was only the first step. Now he could make his own runes, the cell door was open in minutes and he stood outside Bergmeister's cell heaving in breaths. "Tell me the name of the village and I'll let you out," he said.

The fence chuckled. "Oh no!" he said. "Think I'm falling for that one? I'll tell you, but not until we're well away from Fairy Tail."

And Freed entertained the thought, fleetingly, that Bergmeister was making the whole thing up and there _was_ no village. The idea pitched him to the edge of an abyss of despair too deep to deal with. There's nothing I can do, he told himself and he gritted his teeth and let the runes flow to open the lock before him.

"Now what?" asked the fence.

"This way," said Freed. Along the corridor and up the stairs.

The guildhall was silent and deserted, black as pitch until they got above ground. But the door to the infirmary stood ajar with soft light seeping out of it and Freed hesitated. He couldn't help it. "Wait here," he whispered.

"What are you _doing?_"

Something compelled him to go in, even though he knew it was stupid. He ignored Bergmeister's furious protests and pushed the door wider, heart in his mouth. But there was no-one in there except Porlyusica, sleeping in a chair, softly snoring, and Natsu and Hal, both of them too pale and too still, barely breathing.

Freed sat down on Hal's bed, stroked his sleeping face and took his hand. "Hal, wake up!" he whispered, but Hal didn't. "I'm going to fix everything," he said as bravely as he could. "And I love you." He leaned over and kissed him, and then got up and slipped back out of the room silent as a shadow, pulses racing, tears slipping down his face.

It was too easy, that's what he should have been thinking. The fence glared at him out of bulging eyes and the two of them tiptoed through the guildhall, all the way out, free and clear, into a beautiful night filled with millions of stars and masses of crisp, fresh air. Freed almost felt like laughing, but there was too much left to do; this was only the start. "Which way do we go?" he asked the fence.

And then he felt something catch in his hair behind him. His head jerked back, someone had hold of his hair and then had hold of him; a tall someone with enormous arms that wrapped round and held tight like an octopus. Laxus.

"Looks like I've caught me a butterfly," Laxus said.


End file.
